346 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



principle, we so decypher and interpret the 

 complex appearances which surround us, that 

 we receive irresistibly the persuasion of the 

 existence of other men, with thought and will 

 and purpose like our own. And just in the 

 same manner, when we examine attentively the 

 adjustment of the parts of the human frame to 

 each other and to the elements, the relation of 

 the properties of the earth to those of its inha- 

 bitants, or of the physical to the moral nature 

 of man, the thought must arise and cling to our 

 perceptions, however little it be encouraged, that 

 this system, everywhere so full of wonderful 

 combinations, suited to the preservation, and 

 well-being of living creatures, is also the ex- 

 pression of the intention, wisdom, and goodness 

 of a personal creator and governor. 



We conceive then that it is so far from being 

 an unsatisfactory or unphilosophical process by 

 which we collect the existence of a Deity from 

 the works of creation, that the process corres- 

 ponds most closely with that on which rests the 

 most steadfast of our convictions, next to that of 

 our own existence, the belief of the existence of 

 other human beings. If any one ever went so 

 far in scepticism as to doubt the existence of any 

 other person than himself, he might, so far as 

 the argument from final causes is concerned, 

 reject the being of God as well as that of man ; 

 but without dwelling on the possibility of such 



